Introduction
Dear Journal, It had been ten years since the last civil war. Whatever happened to the Kisenian government, someone had "taken care" of them as they had promised (a friend of mine said). Kisenian was a group of shape shifters and vampires that joined together to form their own way of "democracy". It was too horrid because all they did were fighting more wars. Too sick and too pathetic, that was all I had to say to Rhayne and yes, that term made me go to the cemetery to talk to my parents. I missed them so much and I wish that they could have been here now to lead the world back to the way before. As I said before Journal, there were many wars as I lived through these times but no matter what happened I still feel so old. Why is that, Journal? I'm ten, Journal...or am I not? My birthday had passed yesterday and indeed no one remembered. I hate my birthday and I hate my life. Rhayne believed that if I was lucky enough, the orphanage could find me a "suitable" home in a family to their liking and what about my opinion? Doesn't anyone care? Rhayne's only my friend, no one else and you too. I despise those nationalists and Earthlings. I abhor them with all of my heart because...I knew...that....the government was the one who took my parents and I wasn't able to get them back. Forgive me for being too straight-forward with you, Journal. I had to express my anger on someone. I'm sorry...achaelis. A galis dac nílih kien...moch nílih indi kiene. A memory of hatred cannot be forgotten...it will never be forgotten.
0519 WE (Wyndolian Era), 19th of January.
-Elíäs McKnightre
Dear Journal, Forgive me for haven't said a word for a straight two months, Journal. So many things had happened. Rhayne and I were meeting up with Charles in the dungeon where he was kept for interrogation, after we saw what those Wizards had done to him. What did he do that was so illegal that he had to receive a death sentence for it, Journal? What could be stronger than those Wizards...well, maybe vampires or priests but I doubt that they could still stand a chance against them. The Wizards always stand together no matter what. Now, I'm beginning to hate of this "teamwork" thing. Oh, there was another rebellion again from the Vampire clan two days ago and it left an entire city and its people massacred and burned. Pretty crazy but fun for what Valis (the leader of the Vampire clan) had done. I wish I could've been there to see the glorious slaughter of all the history books, and the disgusting part was that they left the carcasses on the streets. I guessed they turned some of them into vampires because it was only 89% of the entire population was there, as the poll said. Man, they turned a lot of people into vampires; I guessed they were still not satisfied with the lack of people in congregation. Ten years...more like ten centuries. Holy dang, ten centuries this fight had been going on between the other clans and the vampires. The others thought that the vampires had taken more on the supply of the food in the world. I got to agree. Amazing teamwork those vampires have, but I would never want to be like them. Those blood-sucking humans. Heh, being a Draconian is enough and even that, I had to deal the curses from the others, myself (with Rhayne to help me, of course. If I go down, he'll go down with me as well). Anyways, Charles looked very pale and I remembered a very faint memory of my parents being done the same thing to what Charles faced, but it was much more. This is too depression, Journal. I have to go. Faeliz...farewell.
0519 WE, 26th of March.
-Elíäs McKnightre
Chapter I Kapow! There goes another hit in addition to the other bruises. Another tally on the Losing Chart again, please. I cupped my left hand on my jaw, and I was afraid to move my mouth if the blood started to gather in the corner of my throat. That famous punch line by the great Rhayne surely packed several bricks, and it made my ears ring in my head when it made contact with me.
"Aww, ye chicken," Rhayne jeered. He was jumping alternatively on each foot with his hands that turned into tight fists were back and forth in the air like there was a hand-to-hand combat any second.
"Rhayne, I told you. I don't want to fight," I replied to him as I shifted into a relax position.
Rhayne was a pretty tall man for a sixteen year old. Six feet and three inches, I believed. He loved to fight and that was all he knew. His usual attires were the same every day: his raggedy, black, sleeveless shirt that showed his long, dangly arms and blue jeans that had not been washed for weeks. Sometimes, I would ponder why he never realized that he might stink up everyone if he entered a closed space. It was an interesting theory and I surely hoped to prove it.
"Aww, C'mon! Wimp-er," he teased with his head cocked back and his hands on his hips. "Yer uh gurl, ya no dat?"
"Dude, yer language I un understand dat," I mimicked him.
"Alright, dats it, ye getting' me nerves." He started to walk toward me with his eyes glaring for a chance to grab me by the throat and his lower lip shirted to front.
I turned around and walked away. No time for this.
He tapped me on my shoulder and when I was about to turn. I ducked underneath him. I could feel him losing his balance, so I took my chance and lifted him up slightly by his abdominal part, throwing him on the ground with a flip that made him land on his back.
The ground shuddered when he crashed and for a moment, he laid there with a stupid grin on his ugly face. He had the most ridiculous haircut I had ever seen: small Mohawk cuts on the front with a bald line across the center of his skull and the rest were cut into layers. I liked the layer part but not the rest.
I walked to his side with an eyebrow quirking upward. It was pretty stupid, though; I never wanted to fight for practice. Extending my hand out in front of me, I signaled him with my head to take my hand. He shook his head, so I shrugged my shoulders and left him alone to rot.
"Narya," he called aloud. He flipped back on his feet, brushing the dusts off of his pants.
"What?" I reached to the opening of the forest. My feet crunched several pebbles while my hand was on the hilt of the black stick that I always carried around, hanging from my belt.
"Ye goin' back?" He stood tall next to me, overlooking the long road that led to a fortress in the distance.
"Well, yeah. This is the way back."
I walked down the road.
Rhayne followed from behind, looking around like a dumb dog that had lost his way. I believed that no matter how stupid he was, he was the only friend I knew in that orphanage. He respected me but underestimated everyone's strength.
"Yo, you heard?" Rhayne looked at me while resting on his bed.
"What?" I shifted around, trying to cover my ears with the pillows.
Smacking the bedbugs that were crawling up my arms, I finally sat up and stared at an empty spot on the floor.
"The humans. They're comin'," he said, breathlessly.
The room was empty and huge. It was the second room on the fourth floor where we could have privacy but when it reached to a certain time the others would get back.
It was a long, big room with a row of twelve beds on the opposite side of the door. There were five beds each from the right side of the door and the left side also. The windows faced the door, brightening up the room with great rays of sunlight to make the shadows disappear. The room looked so plain and old. Some of the paints on the wall were chipped off by the students or it happened by itself. The wall looked "teal-ish white" or muddy white as Rhayne would describe it and it would match the dirty bed sheets, pillows and bed holder. Everything was old in this place. Sad, isn't it?
The ironic part was that people said that companies donated some money and stuffs to us, but all belonged to the leaders. All were used for hoorah-hoorah. Only one percent or maybe less was given to us, orphans.
"Humans?" I pretended to sound interested.
"Yeah."
"Earth humans?" That was awkward.
"Of course, who else?" The bed spring creaked and several footsteps were heard right outside of the door.
Another important fact that I didn't tell you, this floor was for the boys' dormitories. The girls' dormitories were on the third floor and the second floor was for the children. For several minutes, I felt alone until a youngin' opened the door.
The poor bastard had come in. Tall, dark-haired, blue eyes, snotty kid or should I say "bully" kid. Henessah's his name and he was the most popular boy among the orphanage. Known for his good look and charm, he was brainless in academics.
"Narya, what are YOU doing here?" He asked in a most grateful manner but I could tell that tiniest hint of disgust somewhere in his tone. It was THAT obvious that he did not like me.
"Something you wouldn't do, Henessah. Studying," I replied sullenly and stood back up on my feet.
"I don't like your attitude, little boy," he hissed with his hands folded across his chest. "You think you're so smart and cool. You think you know everything."
"At least, it's better than being a poser and mope around every day that the girls would leave you alone and you don't give a damn about it cuz you LOVE the attention." I took my stick from underneath my bed.
Walking past him, he stopped me before going out of the door by extending his left hand out. His annoying face turned to look at me with the most devilish grin that I ever saw coming from him.
"Look, I've nothing to do with you, Henessah. Leave me alone." I pushed his hand aside.
In a sudden, I could feel something trickling down my neck. It trickled down fast under my blue t-shirt, soaking the tip of my collar. I touched it. Blood. He had sliced me. That was very annoying.
"Bye." I walked out without saying another word. He had irritated me and I had all ready lost my appetite for dinner. What a bloody day, doesn't anyone agree?
Chapter II
"Look at that!" A little boy shouted excitedly at a huge lion balloon hovering above the parade with a weird looking cartoon that somehow looked like a big, yellow sponge with eyes and a mouth. The sponge was wearing clothes, amazingly enough.
The streets were crowded as usual in the city with so many modern clothes that they wore to "beauty" themselves. Merchandises were sold in stores and the street peddlers were eager to attract more customers. Such a busy city. Humans.
"Such a city, eh Narya?" A voice spoke from behind me.
I didn't bother to look but stayed quiet by leaning on the wall in front of the alley. I hid myself among the crowd, trying to not attract my "poor boy" look attention. It somehow failed when I saw several groups of teenagers glancing at me with disgust.
"Henessah, leave." I walked away and deeper into the crowd.
Inching away from my stalkers from the orphanage, gawd, why is that? Pushing through the packed street, I found a way in the middle of the parade. I turned around but I saw a vehicle or a rolling, black cart on thick, black wheels, moving toward me.
"Do you want to fight it, Narya boy?" He held the hilt of his knife that he tucked underneath his cloth. Bloody show off.
I whirled around to the side, letting the cart moved away with the driver hissing at me to get out of the street where I wasn't belong.
"Hey, you don't belong here!" Someone agreed to that and indeed, it was an old man from the sideline who was wearing a white T-shirt with black slackers.
"Shut yer traps, humans," Henessah hissed.
"Henessah! That's enough," I glared at him, mumbling underneath breath at him. "Do not attract attention."
I continued to walk away and slipped through the next group of crowds. Seeing a table and four chairs around it in front of this Café Shoppe, but before I sat down I could feel a blade touching my chin and Henessah's heavy breaths on my neck. Disgusting, I'm wondering how long he hadn't brushed his teeth.
"Boy, you do look fine for a stray dog," he whispered in my ear.
I unsheathed my katana quickly and pushed the weapon away from my neck. That was just wrong. The knife clattered onto the ground.
"I'm sorry, I don't swing that way." I whirled around and raised my katana to his neck before he picked up his weapon. "I want you to leave me alone. Is that impossible or do you have to turn me queer like you?"
"Fine," he grumbled underneath his breath and took his knife from the ground, sheathing it back into the scabbard.
A clap rose from my left and I glanced at the person who did that. I could feel my katana being moved to the side but it was only Henessah.
A rather old man in his late 40's maybe, walked toward me. I glanced back at Henessah but he was gone, gritted my teeth and cursed silently in another language. Somewhat translating: "Cursed that boy, leaving me with a damn human on my hand."
"May I see your sword?" The man asked with his right hand extending out for the katana.
He had a mysterious aura around him and a rather weird one for a human. His dark-brown hair clung to his head with his spectacles hanging on the edge of his nose. He wore a middle-class man's clothes: a black suit with golden lining on the shoulders, on the collars and cuffs. His black pants covered the top part of his black shoes. Maybe he had come back from a funeral, wearing all black like that.
I quirked my eyebrow at him but someone tapped me on the shoulder.
"You're not allowed to have weapons, kid," the police said while lifting his hat up slightly to show his eyes, "do you have a license for that?"
I sheathed my katana back.
"He's with me, officer," the old man replied.
"No, I'm not," I yielded back. Hell no, me associating with a human?
"I want you to come down to the station, kid." The officer took out the cuffs and locked it around my wrists.
I never been cuffed before and I realized that it felt quite uncomfortable. Wriggling around from the cuffs that bit my skin, he shoved me forward. Humans are so strange, aren't they?
"Narya!" A familiar voice called out and I saw Rhayne from the top of the one of the apartment buildings across the street.
The police was distracted. I jabbed him on his ribs by the pointy end of my scabbard and dashed into the crowd. I threw several people aside while the other officers were trying to grab my shoulders or my arms. Making my way deeper into the middle of the street right in front of the parade, I pulled a couple of the band players to the side to get them out of the way.
One of the officers pulled my elbow and I whirled around, sending an upward slash with the chain that connected the cuffs together. It caught his chin, a ripping a slight skin out.
"Damn it, Narya!" Rhayne shouted.
"Mind yer own business, Rhayne!" I kicked the officer back to his comrades.
The crowd watched in amazement, well, the kids anyway.
"Just do it!" He called. "Ye takin' too damn long!"
I ran off again but another officer stood in front of me. I threw him on the ground and stood on the sideline. The people scattered away. Raising my cuffed hands to my right side and sent out a whitish-blue orb that was full of energy.
It crashed right next to them, not a direct hit because I didn't want to kill anyone unless it was needed. It was only for a mere distraction, so I ran off again. I didn't have to push anyone this time; they made a clear way for me out of fear.
I stopped in an alley next to the building where Rhayne was waiting. I glanced around to find the staircase that led to the roof. It was all the way in the back and I rushed there, leaping up to the staircase.
I swung myself up to the platform and climbed the zigzagged staircase. I reached to the top and I saw Rhayne leaning out on the ledge to see the crowd. He turned around, making a stupid grin again. He slipped his hand into his coat, pulling out a rather huge stick. Possibly in human calculation, ten centimeters long.
He threw it straight at me and it was caught between the chains. I extended my hands out in front of me and the stick blew up, breaking the chain so I could move my hands freely.
"That's better. Well, without the chains anyway but the cuffs are still annoying," I smiled faintly while stretching my arms out. "Now, what's going on?"
Rhayne rested his arms on the ledge as I took a seat next to him. We watched how the crowd went hectic from seeing a real magic show. Great, it was amazing, sarcastically speaking. Those fools.
"You do realize that they'll find out," Rhayne burst the perfect silence.
My feet dangled down from the ledge. "Who? Find what out?"
"You know who I'm talking about, Narya and about that." He grinned faintly, watching how the police officers were arguing about how embarrassed they were and how one of the police got injured.
"Damn it, that kid cut my chin."
"So?! Who cares about that now? You keep them busy." Another one commanded. Apparently, he seemed to be the leader.
"No, you keep them busy."
"No, you do that!" Another one argued.
"Shut up the both of you!" The fourth one called it off. It was about time.
Chapter III
A gunshot was heard and it was followed by a loud thud outside on the pavement. That was me.
I was back at the orphanage.
"How dare you get into the city and caused such trouble?" Now, that wasn't me.
It was an old lady with a couple of rich people standing tall behind her. The old lady owned the orphanage, and I bet those two people were a part of the donators or the government people.
"I did not do anything!" I stood back up on my feet and brushed the dirt off my pants.
"Oh, really?" One of the rich people came up to me with a plain expression on his face. I believed this conflict was about the breakings of the Wizardry two days ago. He grabbed me by the neck, and with his other hand he had a small, white energy orb.
It was that orb that my other friend, Charles, died to. I heard that it could make someone delirious for a couple of days to get someone to talk, and killed them in the end. I also heard that it could slowly make the muscles in the body, dying bit by bit, and as the people were dying they would confess. Often, they would still kill that person once they confessed but I believed it was just for a mere distraction to think about life and how it felt so worthy at the brink of death. I don't know, though. It could be both or I could be one of them or it could be a different kind of torture.
Before Charles died, he told me that they implanted that orb in his stomach and it slowly moved up to his lungs, engulfing it with liquid and blood. He couldn't breathe as he spoke to me. His eyes were turning white as he sat there in one of the cells in the dungeons. A couple days later when I was about to check on him again, he was all ready dead.
Now, I was beginning to feel the effect. It was such a tremendous pain surging through my spine to my skull, and something flowed into the blood vessels. One by one, my arms and feet were not functioning. So much pain...What a tremendous torture.
I wanted to let out a scream but no sound came from my throat. My lips moved but it was inaudible, and a hand yanked me by the hair.
"Don't kill him. Just make him confess and release him, deal?" The old woman asked to the two people in a distorted voice.
Everything sounded so robotic and distant, but the last sound that I could make out was Rhayne calling my name and saying to hold on. I had collapsed.
Those images flashed in my head again. It felt like those few moments before finally giving in to "eternal rest." I saw a young girl entering into the forest and before that image finished, another picture of the same girl being tortured or possibly burned alive in a mansion. Another thought was beginning to seep into my brain, projecting an escape- through-the-forest image. I felt my body moving or running in that image, but running from what? I did not know but all I had wanted was to escape.
The last picture I saw was someone in the Parliament court, bowing down to a group of wizards, shape shifters, witches, vampire lords and several other representatives. It felt weird but I knew the person who the representatives were judging. The person slowly turned his head. It could be Rhayne or Charles, if that could ever happen. I could almost see his face, then—WHAM!
A foot came rushing into my stomach and shattered one of my ribs. It was a sudden jolt to a very peaceful nightmare.
Prickling pain that could only come from needles, were scorching my cheeks or then again, it could be a cut from a knife.
"Ah, finally you came to your senses." A voice echoed in my head.
I lowered my hands down but a chain decided to not let it go anywhere. It pinned me flat against the wall and the lucky part, for them, anyway, was that I had no strength left. Realizing that my senses became alert than the usual, my feet were locked by two big, steel balls that may had been weighed over than a ton each. My shirt was tattered on the ground next to me, and whip-like scars were shown everywhere on my body.
I became a renegade to the government and the surrounding neighbor countries since I was eight. I was always an orphan and no family wanted me as their child. That was how pathetic I was when I was a kid. Deciding that I should have left the orphanage when I was nine, I was finally caught by several bounty hunters, who wanted that money on the Wanted posters they hung around the villages. They threw me back into the orphanage and trying to get the ransom from the old woman. Hah, I killed them.
"That's just amazing. You're awake from that attack in under an hour." A person, who sounded so familiar from before, approached me and knelt down to my eye level. "Yer a strong person for a kid your age. How old are you?"
I glanced down at a spot on the ground, bloodied my own blood. My feet were stretched out in front of me with those steel chains tied around my ankles, and I felt like my neck was about to break off.
"Who...da...hell...are you?" I whispered solemnly at the man.
Afterward, I started coughing up to get the dry blood out that was stuck on the back my throat. My voice cleared after spitting it out at my side, and with a chuckle I dared to look back up at the man.
"You've no right to put me here, officer," I said to him, staring into his scornful, green eyes. He looked like a mage.
"Well, is that so? Isn't your name Narya Drake Ar'Chael, or should I call you McKnightre, instead? Either way's fine." He moved back a little bit but he was still at the same eye level as me. "How old are you, Drake?"
I glared at him and spat out the remaining dry blood from my throat.
"I'm thirteen. What do you want?"
"Simply wanting a chat," he lied.
"By saying my entire name out and asking my age? That is bullshit right there," I hissed, "your nose flared and your ears twitch when you lie. "
The pain in my lungs grabbed my heart in a sudden, clutching it tightly. For awhile, it lowered the amount of oxygen that was pumping throughout my entire body, and my head lowered. My fists clenched at the thought of that mage's smile, please let me at least rip his spine out.
"A thirteen year-old sending an energy ball to distract the officers, where'd you learn your impressive skill, Drake?" Another man that was sitting on the table with his feet crossed spoke. He looked...gay and jolly.
"Do not...call me by that...name..." The pain was burning my lungs and blood vessels on my wrists and neck.
"Where, in the Yaris of Wizard, did you learn it from, Drake?!" The first man grabbed me by the hair and forced my head to look up into his eyes.
"Why should I tell you, your highness? I thought yer supposed ta know it all by yerself." I let out a choked sound that was supposedly to be a chuckle. Gawd, my throat was so dry. If I couldn't kill anyone or grabbing someone and broke off a head or two, let me have a sip of water.
I felt a hand being smacked across my face.
"Drake...this is not a good time to play around. Did you or did you not steal books from the Wizardry?" He grabbed my throat, digging his fingertips into my neck.
"I did not steal anything...let go...of my neck..."
"Do not lie to me!" He tightened his grip around my neck until I had to force the saliva down my neck to keep it from drying.
"I...did...not...steal...anything..." Air, I need air.
"Can you testify to that court?" He shouted.
No reply.
The locked clanged, opening the gate to this jail. Unfortunately, I couldn't do anything but stay here while being pinned to the wall, looking like a dumas. The man released my neck, stood up and walked over to the group of wizards. One of them held a thick, leather covered book that looked quite familiar. I had not held any thefts in quite some time now, so I could possibly be held responsible if the other people in my group bailed out on me.
That man came back with a book in his hands and knelt down in front of me.
"Isn't this the book, Drake?" He asked.
I glanced down at the book for awhile but I closed my eyes after remembering it. It wasn't that book. It was much more advanced than that.
"How should I know?" I shrugged my shoulders slightly.
"He's telling the truth...Just let him go, Eli'Ath," the second man from before, who looked jolly, replied.
Yeah, let me go, so I could steal more stuffs and wreak more havoc.
"No, he's hiding something. I could feel it," Eli'Ath gritted his teeth.
Feel what, you insolent bastard? What did I have to hide from you? Besides the fact that I could have done something to your wife, that would be something.
"Just leave the poor boy alone." Your friend was a good man, Eli'Ath. Better than the worthless fool like you. I looked up slightly, trying to gather my strength back to sit up. I shook away from his grip and kicking him, weakly to move farther away from my sight. It was too disgusting to see him anymore or maybe I could sic Rhayne to "fix" his face. Speaking of Rhayne, where the hell was he?
The man stumbled back on his bottom and dropped the book on the ground.
"You know what? Let's wait until court," He finally, rested.
When someone speaks, you have two choices.
You can either reply or don't...
But often when you reply, you think, don't you agree?
But when you don't, they think you ignore them or it's an agreement.
It's an irony.
Part I
A Paradox of Dreams
Chapter IV
That was ten years ago. Not that much has changed. Besides the fact that I had been released from the dungeons and fed to the dogs by the wizards, I was fine. They had sentenced me a three-year jail time for that book stealing but I would never stay in a place for that long, especially when it's a place full of criminals. I was talking about myself again, weren't I? I wasn't used to hanging around criminals that time...those ten years ago.
Maybe to humans, ten years felt like a long time but it was only a blink of an eye in the world's years. Nothing much had changed, as I had said before. I escaped the prison and currently on the Most Wanted list for murders, muggings and "lynching." I never did those except for theft and murder.
I stood here, climbing on the cliff that was at the edge of the Wizard Mansion from the rear entrance. The tidal waves were kicking high and it could get pretty low until the sharp rocks were shown. The wind was beating hard against my chest and the rocks, and I knew that I would get a cold by tomorrow if I didn't hurry up.
Climbing up the slippery edges, I reached to the top in two minutes. The lighthouse spun around and spotlight was inches away from me being caught. I ducked it silently and swiftly when I rolled on the ground, staying quietly and stiff at the wall.
The dagger was tightly clutched in my left hand that I held to my face and an M9 shotgun in my other hand. I felt drops of water falling on my bandanna and arms. Damn, I shouldn't have worn my sleeveless, black shirt but if I wore long sleeves, it would be harder to move my hands. Both ways were still bad anyways.
Everything was silent but the lighthouse kept on moving and shining its spotlight to find intruders. I glanced out to the edge of the wall and quickly ran inside.
"Hey, look! An intruder!" Damn it.
I saw the person when I whirled around. For a split second, I noticed that he was wearing a yellow, wizard's robe and a wand in his right hand. They sent me a bloody, weak wizard?
Extending my gun out, I shot him on the chest. A shield was raised and it deflected the bullet. Haha, first level but I had to say that he got his timing right. I jumped back to the direction of the gate while continuing to shoot the wizard until the ammunition ran out, and threw it on the ground afterward.
For awhile, I glanced around if there was anyone else watching or patrolling around the area. My hand was beginning to feel warm, and another second had passed, a red fireball appeared on the middle of my palm. Small, glowing red energy ball, that's what it was.
"What are you going to do with that, boy? That's weak," he laughed.
"It is something that you don't know how to do." I disappeared in a sudden, appearing right behind him.
My hand grabbed his throat, itching to get a taste of some revenge after accusing me of what they didn't know I did it. I forced his mouth open to swallow a much greater amount of the fireball that emit on the middle of my palm.
I jumped back to the gate; its thick black seal locked the entrance. The shield was on. I ran to the side of the gate, opening a small box on the wall and disabling all the shield, sensors and traps. The lights were still on and I got three more seconds before the spotlights spotted me.
The wizard had turned to ashes when I sneaked to the gate. His death was rather disgusting: his pores opened and exploded, leaving different sizes of craters on his face and body. One of the side effects that attack had on people was dying of increase loss of dehydration.
Three seconds. One second—I had jumped to the gate and climbed it—I was stuck between the sharp, pointy edges on the top of the gate by the belt on the bottom part of my pants. Three seconds, I freed myself from the sharp tips and jumped back down to the other side.
I hid quickly into the bushes to wait for the spotlight to pass by. The place was silent and it was impossible for things to be this quiet in a Wizard Mansion. There must always be a guard or traps intact, unless if it was nighttime and in a holiday, but either way there should be a guard. I should know it.
I sneaked quietly into the entrance of the Mansion, remembering several things that had happened when I went in there for the first time. It was confusing but I almost got caught by the security. As a matter of fact, I did get caught. I bet it was one of those days when the wizards had laid their grubby hands off me, and tested me to try to get into their security system. Maybe. They finally, left me alone but there was no definite reason behind it.
Stopping in a sudden when I stood on top of the staircase and in front of the door, it was still silent. It was creepy. The bronze, oak door was slightly opened from the inside. Indeed it was nighttime but impossible to let their guard down and welcomed me with wide open arms. Were they toying with my head? Hell, it's worth the risk if I get a prize in the end.
I stepped up forward slowly with my left hand extending out to push the door. Nudging it to open quietly, I sauntered in—
"HOLY VIRGIN CHRISSY OF ANDREI! NARYA!"
I jolted upward in a sudden from the bed, but I could feel a needle puncturing a vein in my right wrist. I was forced back to lie down on the bed by somebody's hands clutching tightly on my shoulders. My visions blurred but I heard the mumblings and laughing beside me. Rhayne...
Just for a moment, I swear I was back in that prison and forced to eat piles of human carcasses they called "food." They force fed me, tried to know several questions and beat the living daylight out of me. It was interesting because most of the time I was a vegetable. Dead and rendered useless.
Opening my eyes, I noticed that I was lying on a bed in the hospital wing and it was nighttime. The curtains were down, covering the windows to not let the light from the room to escape. I couldn't feel my wrist anymore because of the I.V needle, but I saw Rhayne talking happily to a nurse. Sounded like flirting to me.
"Rhayne..." I muttered breathlessly.
He was still chatting with that nurse.
"Rhayne..." I spoke a little bit louder.
He turned and saw me.
"Hey!" He greeted in a gleeful tone as he rushed toward me.
I winced a little bit. "Needle...I.V."
He gazed down at the I.V needle in my right wrist that continued tugging at my skin deeper when I tried to my fingers. In a swift, sudden movement, he pulled it that felt like an elephant had took a chunk out of my hand. I didn't mind about the pain, though; I had experienced worst.
"There. You wanna go now?" He asked.
"Why am I here?" I muttered faintly and half-speaking in my mind.
"Ten months...you gotten sick from a disease that was spreading inside the dungeon," he whispered, "and then, you gotten thrown out of the Wizardry after getting a cold from climbing the cliff."
So, it was a dream after all. I sat up on the bed. My left hand held my head up while closing my eyes.
So many things are missing, I thought, too many. Realizing that I needed to go to the forest to welcome some people, I really had to go to the Wizardries as well or a tavern in the back of this alley. It was time go on a move.
I ripped off the needles that were in my other arms and hand, and stood up on my feet. I felt weird to stand up after sitting down, sleeping for a long time. My knees were wobbly.
"Where are my clothes?" I could feel the wind seeping underneath the hospital clothing.
"Are you okay?" Rhayne asked.
"I'll leave you two alone," the nurse said while smiling at Rhayne and left.
I jerked my head up, giving him an awkward expression. "Yeah, I'm fine. Why?" I gazed into his eyes after he looked back to me.
"Why? Dude, you just woke up after ten months, sat up and asked for clothes. Where in the world are you going?" He tilted his head to the side with a puzzled expression.
"Where are my clothes?" I did not intend to tell him what my plans were as I looked back down to see the warm, red carpet that my toes were squiggling on. The heater was on.
"Tell me first where you're going."
I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt but a pain surged through my lungs and was forced to let go of him; I walked off to the door.
Rhayne followed. "What the hell has gotten into you?'
No reply, instead, I walked out of the room and to the hallways where several nurses stood around to get by the shift. What is going on here? Why am I having this pain?
"Damn it, Narya. What's wrong with you?" He appeared in front of me, stopping me in the midst of my tracks.
I walked around him to the side but he stopped me. I tried again and he still wouldn't let me pass. For a moment, I felt another pain in my lungs but I took no notice of it.
"Get away..." I pushed him off to the side.
He grabbed me by the wrist and slammed me to the wall. Dragging me into the room by the collar afterward, he opened the door to the balcony. For sanity's sake, he threw me off the ledge, down from the fifth floor and to the marbled floor. That fall stung my spine.
"What the hell are you trying to do?" He stood next to me.
I flipped back up to my feet, staggering back a little bit but I regained my balance quickly.
"Anacotti's Tavern." I brushed the dirt off my pants.
"What?"
"Where the hell are my clothes?" I felt more irritated now.
He walked off into the bushes and through a mini forest. "Come."
I felt the wind brushing my back, and followed him. Strands of my light brown hair brushed my forehead, and I could tell that tonight would be busy (hopefully) since I was back.
Five minutes had passed and we reached the Tavern at the back of the alley. Several people entered, wearing their fancy fur coats and attires with make-ups and disguising what they truly looked like. Most of them were considered shape shifters, werewolves, Wiccans, warriors, and hopefully there were no knights in shining armor. Hell, they were going to kill me and yeah, that would be a first. Did anyone sense that sarcasm? "Dear gawd, man. Do you have any clothes?" I stormed over to the door of the tavern. I covered my back with the hospital clothes and Rhayne's black trench coat. It felt warm. He let me borrow his hat that he rarely wore and mostly, I was walking on barefoot. The pain subsided but I could feel the scars on my back were opening up again. The cold asphalt felt like ice comparing to the carpet in the hospital. "That's all I have on me. The hospital took all of your clothes and your pants. Let's just go in," he hissed incoherently while dragging me inside by the arm. Dear gawd, it's a disco bar. What did they do to this place? "Oh, my goddess of Althena! Narya Drake McKnightre!" Someone shouted from the bar. It sounded like a queer person and no, I didn't feel romantic tonight. Rhayne patted me and winked, "I'll be at the bar. Want something?" "Yeah...three good bottles of vodka and five whiskeys," I replied with a nervous chuckle. He gave me the Pssh-yeah-right look and left. A drunken guy approached me with a big grin of his face. He was a tall, tanned skin, 180 centimeters tall and a silver-haired man. His slanted posture made him looked like he wasn't standing at all and tipsy-toed. Around his forehead was a piece of dirtied cloth that he made into a bandanna. Long, white sleeves covered his armlets and jewelries that were gathered around his wrists and upper arms. Long, black puffy pants hid his black boots and two red belts crossed together in an X-form that dangled down his pants. "Uhh...who are you?" I whispered to him. "Aha! Duntcha remember me, Narya?" He smiled widely, showing two golden teeth at the corner of his mouth. "Ahh, Bucktooth Ritchie," I chuckled faintly. "Yoo rimambert! But plees koll mi Bucktooth Dane." He spoke with an Elven accent with his breath stank from all the whiskey he drank. He fell unto me, hugging me tightly. Well, of course. Those golden teeth could shine from Earth to Phantasy land if the sun reflected on it. Stupid man. "Dude, wutever happent to you?" A hand clamped on my right shoulder. I turned around and it was Angel's Hell Aury standing behind me. Hah, don't let his name provoked you. He was an angel but living in Hell, if you get what I meant. He was a wizard five years ago before they kicked him out for stealing the artifacts in the Wizard Treasury and invoking demons. He was a mischievous bastard, that's for sure and somewhat better than Rhayne. He was stronger, of course. "Recovering from illness, my friend," I chuckled faintly to him. "Ahh, I knew it. The clothes. You want to borrow mine or something?" He offered his black tee shirt that had a blue, snake-like dragon with a sword entwined along the middle. "Yeah, I do. Do you have any pants?" I took the shirt and slipped deeper into the crowd. He sent a thought in my head; his voice rang in my head like a gong. "Room four-oh-ten, you'll find most of your stuff there." Great...where the hell did the stairs go? I glanced around very slowly and moved in through the dancing crowd. I swear it felt like a disco hall. Screw it. Appearing at the staircase now and away from the crowded floor, I climbed up to the fourth floor. The spiral staircase was tightly enclosed with stone walls covered in spell encryptions along the surface. Along the walls that reached to the first floor, it was a story. It was a story of the history of this place and its surrounding. I finally, reached to the first floor and glanced at the steel door to my left, somewhat bolted or chained on the top and bottom. A thud was heard from inside and several kicking, punching and coughing. Should I interfere? Nah... I continued to climb up the stairs, gazing at the pictures carved on the wall and telling about the clans in different languages. Some of the languages, I noticed it but this was definitely getting boring. I appeared back on the fourth floor with no doors, gates or entrances whatsoever to enter it. The walls were not as smooth as before but rigid and bundles of bricks piled up and glued to the ceiling. I guessed they got tired of the smooth stone. Hmm... I extended my hand out when I turned to the side and it went through it like the wall was only air. Going through the wall, a whole new corridor opened up before me. Lighted only by little flickers of flames on the torch that hung by the door on each side. The floor, walls and ceilings felt like a cold, eerie dungeon hallway. The marbled bricks felt like needles jabbing my soles and the breeze brought back the memories of the orphanage and the Wizardries. Those times were not worth remembering. Room four-oh-one or room four-oh-ten. I believed it was room four-oh-ten. Walking down the corridor, goose bumps ran down my arms, and on the back of my mind, I had a feeling there would be banshees in this place. It felt like hell all over again. Crap, I brought no weapons. Four-oh-eleven, I looked to my right and moved back a room. Four-oh nine. I walked to the right and to a door right across from four-oh-eleven, but it said four-oh-twelve. Something felt weird. In a sudden, I felt a presence behind me. The air became colder in a second and the hallways were misty...foggy. I felt a hand grab me by the neck and slammed through a brick wall, but by the next second I was lying down on the ground in a room. The room was dark and the wooden floorboards creaked underneath my feet. The brick walls felt warm when the moonlight shone through the window glass, reflecting the rays like a light that had pierced through a champagne glass on the wall. There was a stack of backpacks in the corner, noticing that mine was on top of all of it. A note was placed there above my backpack. Hmm... It's too dark. Quickly, I got up on my feet and brushed off the dusts from my pants. I walked toward it but that cold, eerie feeling that I had since I was in the hallway, had returned. Ignoring it for a couple more minutes, the air became colder as I walked on to take the note. For a second there, I swear I felt something breathing down my neck and cool drops of liquid fell on my spine. Goosebumps appeared on my arms. I turned around on the spot but suddenly, stumbled back from one of the bag handle. Looking back up, I saw a white, silvery person floating on the air.
Dear Journal, It had been ten years since the last civil war. Whatever happened to the Kisenian government, someone had "taken care" of them as they had promised (a friend of mine said). Kisenian was a group of shape shifters and vampires that joined together to form their own way of "democracy". It was too horrid because all they did were fighting more wars. Too sick and too pathetic, that was all I had to say to Rhayne and yes, that term made me go to the cemetery to talk to my parents. I missed them so much and I wish that they could have been here now to lead the world back to the way before. As I said before Journal, there were many wars as I lived through these times but no matter what happened I still feel so old. Why is that, Journal? I'm ten, Journal...or am I not? My birthday had passed yesterday and indeed no one remembered. I hate my birthday and I hate my life. Rhayne believed that if I was lucky enough, the orphanage could find me a "suitable" home in a family to their liking and what about my opinion? Doesn't anyone care? Rhayne's only my friend, no one else and you too. I despise those nationalists and Earthlings. I abhor them with all of my heart because...I knew...that....the government was the one who took my parents and I wasn't able to get them back. Forgive me for being too straight-forward with you, Journal. I had to express my anger on someone. I'm sorry...achaelis. A galis dac nílih kien...moch nílih indi kiene. A memory of hatred cannot be forgotten...it will never be forgotten.
0519 WE (Wyndolian Era), 19th of January.
-Elíäs McKnightre
Dear Journal, Forgive me for haven't said a word for a straight two months, Journal. So many things had happened. Rhayne and I were meeting up with Charles in the dungeon where he was kept for interrogation, after we saw what those Wizards had done to him. What did he do that was so illegal that he had to receive a death sentence for it, Journal? What could be stronger than those Wizards...well, maybe vampires or priests but I doubt that they could still stand a chance against them. The Wizards always stand together no matter what. Now, I'm beginning to hate of this "teamwork" thing. Oh, there was another rebellion again from the Vampire clan two days ago and it left an entire city and its people massacred and burned. Pretty crazy but fun for what Valis (the leader of the Vampire clan) had done. I wish I could've been there to see the glorious slaughter of all the history books, and the disgusting part was that they left the carcasses on the streets. I guessed they turned some of them into vampires because it was only 89% of the entire population was there, as the poll said. Man, they turned a lot of people into vampires; I guessed they were still not satisfied with the lack of people in congregation. Ten years...more like ten centuries. Holy dang, ten centuries this fight had been going on between the other clans and the vampires. The others thought that the vampires had taken more on the supply of the food in the world. I got to agree. Amazing teamwork those vampires have, but I would never want to be like them. Those blood-sucking humans. Heh, being a Draconian is enough and even that, I had to deal the curses from the others, myself (with Rhayne to help me, of course. If I go down, he'll go down with me as well). Anyways, Charles looked very pale and I remembered a very faint memory of my parents being done the same thing to what Charles faced, but it was much more. This is too depression, Journal. I have to go. Faeliz...farewell.
0519 WE, 26th of March.
-Elíäs McKnightre
Chapter I Kapow! There goes another hit in addition to the other bruises. Another tally on the Losing Chart again, please. I cupped my left hand on my jaw, and I was afraid to move my mouth if the blood started to gather in the corner of my throat. That famous punch line by the great Rhayne surely packed several bricks, and it made my ears ring in my head when it made contact with me.
"Aww, ye chicken," Rhayne jeered. He was jumping alternatively on each foot with his hands that turned into tight fists were back and forth in the air like there was a hand-to-hand combat any second.
"Rhayne, I told you. I don't want to fight," I replied to him as I shifted into a relax position.
Rhayne was a pretty tall man for a sixteen year old. Six feet and three inches, I believed. He loved to fight and that was all he knew. His usual attires were the same every day: his raggedy, black, sleeveless shirt that showed his long, dangly arms and blue jeans that had not been washed for weeks. Sometimes, I would ponder why he never realized that he might stink up everyone if he entered a closed space. It was an interesting theory and I surely hoped to prove it.
"Aww, C'mon! Wimp-er," he teased with his head cocked back and his hands on his hips. "Yer uh gurl, ya no dat?"
"Dude, yer language I un understand dat," I mimicked him.
"Alright, dats it, ye getting' me nerves." He started to walk toward me with his eyes glaring for a chance to grab me by the throat and his lower lip shirted to front.
I turned around and walked away. No time for this.
He tapped me on my shoulder and when I was about to turn. I ducked underneath him. I could feel him losing his balance, so I took my chance and lifted him up slightly by his abdominal part, throwing him on the ground with a flip that made him land on his back.
The ground shuddered when he crashed and for a moment, he laid there with a stupid grin on his ugly face. He had the most ridiculous haircut I had ever seen: small Mohawk cuts on the front with a bald line across the center of his skull and the rest were cut into layers. I liked the layer part but not the rest.
I walked to his side with an eyebrow quirking upward. It was pretty stupid, though; I never wanted to fight for practice. Extending my hand out in front of me, I signaled him with my head to take my hand. He shook his head, so I shrugged my shoulders and left him alone to rot.
"Narya," he called aloud. He flipped back on his feet, brushing the dusts off of his pants.
"What?" I reached to the opening of the forest. My feet crunched several pebbles while my hand was on the hilt of the black stick that I always carried around, hanging from my belt.
"Ye goin' back?" He stood tall next to me, overlooking the long road that led to a fortress in the distance.
"Well, yeah. This is the way back."
I walked down the road.
Rhayne followed from behind, looking around like a dumb dog that had lost his way. I believed that no matter how stupid he was, he was the only friend I knew in that orphanage. He respected me but underestimated everyone's strength.
"Yo, you heard?" Rhayne looked at me while resting on his bed.
"What?" I shifted around, trying to cover my ears with the pillows.
Smacking the bedbugs that were crawling up my arms, I finally sat up and stared at an empty spot on the floor.
"The humans. They're comin'," he said, breathlessly.
The room was empty and huge. It was the second room on the fourth floor where we could have privacy but when it reached to a certain time the others would get back.
It was a long, big room with a row of twelve beds on the opposite side of the door. There were five beds each from the right side of the door and the left side also. The windows faced the door, brightening up the room with great rays of sunlight to make the shadows disappear. The room looked so plain and old. Some of the paints on the wall were chipped off by the students or it happened by itself. The wall looked "teal-ish white" or muddy white as Rhayne would describe it and it would match the dirty bed sheets, pillows and bed holder. Everything was old in this place. Sad, isn't it?
The ironic part was that people said that companies donated some money and stuffs to us, but all belonged to the leaders. All were used for hoorah-hoorah. Only one percent or maybe less was given to us, orphans.
"Humans?" I pretended to sound interested.
"Yeah."
"Earth humans?" That was awkward.
"Of course, who else?" The bed spring creaked and several footsteps were heard right outside of the door.
Another important fact that I didn't tell you, this floor was for the boys' dormitories. The girls' dormitories were on the third floor and the second floor was for the children. For several minutes, I felt alone until a youngin' opened the door.
The poor bastard had come in. Tall, dark-haired, blue eyes, snotty kid or should I say "bully" kid. Henessah's his name and he was the most popular boy among the orphanage. Known for his good look and charm, he was brainless in academics.
"Narya, what are YOU doing here?" He asked in a most grateful manner but I could tell that tiniest hint of disgust somewhere in his tone. It was THAT obvious that he did not like me.
"Something you wouldn't do, Henessah. Studying," I replied sullenly and stood back up on my feet.
"I don't like your attitude, little boy," he hissed with his hands folded across his chest. "You think you're so smart and cool. You think you know everything."
"At least, it's better than being a poser and mope around every day that the girls would leave you alone and you don't give a damn about it cuz you LOVE the attention." I took my stick from underneath my bed.
Walking past him, he stopped me before going out of the door by extending his left hand out. His annoying face turned to look at me with the most devilish grin that I ever saw coming from him.
"Look, I've nothing to do with you, Henessah. Leave me alone." I pushed his hand aside.
In a sudden, I could feel something trickling down my neck. It trickled down fast under my blue t-shirt, soaking the tip of my collar. I touched it. Blood. He had sliced me. That was very annoying.
"Bye." I walked out without saying another word. He had irritated me and I had all ready lost my appetite for dinner. What a bloody day, doesn't anyone agree?
Chapter II
"Look at that!" A little boy shouted excitedly at a huge lion balloon hovering above the parade with a weird looking cartoon that somehow looked like a big, yellow sponge with eyes and a mouth. The sponge was wearing clothes, amazingly enough.
The streets were crowded as usual in the city with so many modern clothes that they wore to "beauty" themselves. Merchandises were sold in stores and the street peddlers were eager to attract more customers. Such a busy city. Humans.
"Such a city, eh Narya?" A voice spoke from behind me.
I didn't bother to look but stayed quiet by leaning on the wall in front of the alley. I hid myself among the crowd, trying to not attract my "poor boy" look attention. It somehow failed when I saw several groups of teenagers glancing at me with disgust.
"Henessah, leave." I walked away and deeper into the crowd.
Inching away from my stalkers from the orphanage, gawd, why is that? Pushing through the packed street, I found a way in the middle of the parade. I turned around but I saw a vehicle or a rolling, black cart on thick, black wheels, moving toward me.
"Do you want to fight it, Narya boy?" He held the hilt of his knife that he tucked underneath his cloth. Bloody show off.
I whirled around to the side, letting the cart moved away with the driver hissing at me to get out of the street where I wasn't belong.
"Hey, you don't belong here!" Someone agreed to that and indeed, it was an old man from the sideline who was wearing a white T-shirt with black slackers.
"Shut yer traps, humans," Henessah hissed.
"Henessah! That's enough," I glared at him, mumbling underneath breath at him. "Do not attract attention."
I continued to walk away and slipped through the next group of crowds. Seeing a table and four chairs around it in front of this Café Shoppe, but before I sat down I could feel a blade touching my chin and Henessah's heavy breaths on my neck. Disgusting, I'm wondering how long he hadn't brushed his teeth.
"Boy, you do look fine for a stray dog," he whispered in my ear.
I unsheathed my katana quickly and pushed the weapon away from my neck. That was just wrong. The knife clattered onto the ground.
"I'm sorry, I don't swing that way." I whirled around and raised my katana to his neck before he picked up his weapon. "I want you to leave me alone. Is that impossible or do you have to turn me queer like you?"
"Fine," he grumbled underneath his breath and took his knife from the ground, sheathing it back into the scabbard.
A clap rose from my left and I glanced at the person who did that. I could feel my katana being moved to the side but it was only Henessah.
A rather old man in his late 40's maybe, walked toward me. I glanced back at Henessah but he was gone, gritted my teeth and cursed silently in another language. Somewhat translating: "Cursed that boy, leaving me with a damn human on my hand."
"May I see your sword?" The man asked with his right hand extending out for the katana.
He had a mysterious aura around him and a rather weird one for a human. His dark-brown hair clung to his head with his spectacles hanging on the edge of his nose. He wore a middle-class man's clothes: a black suit with golden lining on the shoulders, on the collars and cuffs. His black pants covered the top part of his black shoes. Maybe he had come back from a funeral, wearing all black like that.
I quirked my eyebrow at him but someone tapped me on the shoulder.
"You're not allowed to have weapons, kid," the police said while lifting his hat up slightly to show his eyes, "do you have a license for that?"
I sheathed my katana back.
"He's with me, officer," the old man replied.
"No, I'm not," I yielded back. Hell no, me associating with a human?
"I want you to come down to the station, kid." The officer took out the cuffs and locked it around my wrists.
I never been cuffed before and I realized that it felt quite uncomfortable. Wriggling around from the cuffs that bit my skin, he shoved me forward. Humans are so strange, aren't they?
"Narya!" A familiar voice called out and I saw Rhayne from the top of the one of the apartment buildings across the street.
The police was distracted. I jabbed him on his ribs by the pointy end of my scabbard and dashed into the crowd. I threw several people aside while the other officers were trying to grab my shoulders or my arms. Making my way deeper into the middle of the street right in front of the parade, I pulled a couple of the band players to the side to get them out of the way.
One of the officers pulled my elbow and I whirled around, sending an upward slash with the chain that connected the cuffs together. It caught his chin, a ripping a slight skin out.
"Damn it, Narya!" Rhayne shouted.
"Mind yer own business, Rhayne!" I kicked the officer back to his comrades.
The crowd watched in amazement, well, the kids anyway.
"Just do it!" He called. "Ye takin' too damn long!"
I ran off again but another officer stood in front of me. I threw him on the ground and stood on the sideline. The people scattered away. Raising my cuffed hands to my right side and sent out a whitish-blue orb that was full of energy.
It crashed right next to them, not a direct hit because I didn't want to kill anyone unless it was needed. It was only for a mere distraction, so I ran off again. I didn't have to push anyone this time; they made a clear way for me out of fear.
I stopped in an alley next to the building where Rhayne was waiting. I glanced around to find the staircase that led to the roof. It was all the way in the back and I rushed there, leaping up to the staircase.
I swung myself up to the platform and climbed the zigzagged staircase. I reached to the top and I saw Rhayne leaning out on the ledge to see the crowd. He turned around, making a stupid grin again. He slipped his hand into his coat, pulling out a rather huge stick. Possibly in human calculation, ten centimeters long.
He threw it straight at me and it was caught between the chains. I extended my hands out in front of me and the stick blew up, breaking the chain so I could move my hands freely.
"That's better. Well, without the chains anyway but the cuffs are still annoying," I smiled faintly while stretching my arms out. "Now, what's going on?"
Rhayne rested his arms on the ledge as I took a seat next to him. We watched how the crowd went hectic from seeing a real magic show. Great, it was amazing, sarcastically speaking. Those fools.
"You do realize that they'll find out," Rhayne burst the perfect silence.
My feet dangled down from the ledge. "Who? Find what out?"
"You know who I'm talking about, Narya and about that." He grinned faintly, watching how the police officers were arguing about how embarrassed they were and how one of the police got injured.
"Damn it, that kid cut my chin."
"So?! Who cares about that now? You keep them busy." Another one commanded. Apparently, he seemed to be the leader.
"No, you keep them busy."
"No, you do that!" Another one argued.
"Shut up the both of you!" The fourth one called it off. It was about time.
Chapter III
A gunshot was heard and it was followed by a loud thud outside on the pavement. That was me.
I was back at the orphanage.
"How dare you get into the city and caused such trouble?" Now, that wasn't me.
It was an old lady with a couple of rich people standing tall behind her. The old lady owned the orphanage, and I bet those two people were a part of the donators or the government people.
"I did not do anything!" I stood back up on my feet and brushed the dirt off my pants.
"Oh, really?" One of the rich people came up to me with a plain expression on his face. I believed this conflict was about the breakings of the Wizardry two days ago. He grabbed me by the neck, and with his other hand he had a small, white energy orb.
It was that orb that my other friend, Charles, died to. I heard that it could make someone delirious for a couple of days to get someone to talk, and killed them in the end. I also heard that it could slowly make the muscles in the body, dying bit by bit, and as the people were dying they would confess. Often, they would still kill that person once they confessed but I believed it was just for a mere distraction to think about life and how it felt so worthy at the brink of death. I don't know, though. It could be both or I could be one of them or it could be a different kind of torture.
Before Charles died, he told me that they implanted that orb in his stomach and it slowly moved up to his lungs, engulfing it with liquid and blood. He couldn't breathe as he spoke to me. His eyes were turning white as he sat there in one of the cells in the dungeons. A couple days later when I was about to check on him again, he was all ready dead.
Now, I was beginning to feel the effect. It was such a tremendous pain surging through my spine to my skull, and something flowed into the blood vessels. One by one, my arms and feet were not functioning. So much pain...What a tremendous torture.
I wanted to let out a scream but no sound came from my throat. My lips moved but it was inaudible, and a hand yanked me by the hair.
"Don't kill him. Just make him confess and release him, deal?" The old woman asked to the two people in a distorted voice.
Everything sounded so robotic and distant, but the last sound that I could make out was Rhayne calling my name and saying to hold on. I had collapsed.
Those images flashed in my head again. It felt like those few moments before finally giving in to "eternal rest." I saw a young girl entering into the forest and before that image finished, another picture of the same girl being tortured or possibly burned alive in a mansion. Another thought was beginning to seep into my brain, projecting an escape- through-the-forest image. I felt my body moving or running in that image, but running from what? I did not know but all I had wanted was to escape.
The last picture I saw was someone in the Parliament court, bowing down to a group of wizards, shape shifters, witches, vampire lords and several other representatives. It felt weird but I knew the person who the representatives were judging. The person slowly turned his head. It could be Rhayne or Charles, if that could ever happen. I could almost see his face, then—WHAM!
A foot came rushing into my stomach and shattered one of my ribs. It was a sudden jolt to a very peaceful nightmare.
Prickling pain that could only come from needles, were scorching my cheeks or then again, it could be a cut from a knife.
"Ah, finally you came to your senses." A voice echoed in my head.
I lowered my hands down but a chain decided to not let it go anywhere. It pinned me flat against the wall and the lucky part, for them, anyway, was that I had no strength left. Realizing that my senses became alert than the usual, my feet were locked by two big, steel balls that may had been weighed over than a ton each. My shirt was tattered on the ground next to me, and whip-like scars were shown everywhere on my body.
I became a renegade to the government and the surrounding neighbor countries since I was eight. I was always an orphan and no family wanted me as their child. That was how pathetic I was when I was a kid. Deciding that I should have left the orphanage when I was nine, I was finally caught by several bounty hunters, who wanted that money on the Wanted posters they hung around the villages. They threw me back into the orphanage and trying to get the ransom from the old woman. Hah, I killed them.
"That's just amazing. You're awake from that attack in under an hour." A person, who sounded so familiar from before, approached me and knelt down to my eye level. "Yer a strong person for a kid your age. How old are you?"
I glanced down at a spot on the ground, bloodied my own blood. My feet were stretched out in front of me with those steel chains tied around my ankles, and I felt like my neck was about to break off.
"Who...da...hell...are you?" I whispered solemnly at the man.
Afterward, I started coughing up to get the dry blood out that was stuck on the back my throat. My voice cleared after spitting it out at my side, and with a chuckle I dared to look back up at the man.
"You've no right to put me here, officer," I said to him, staring into his scornful, green eyes. He looked like a mage.
"Well, is that so? Isn't your name Narya Drake Ar'Chael, or should I call you McKnightre, instead? Either way's fine." He moved back a little bit but he was still at the same eye level as me. "How old are you, Drake?"
I glared at him and spat out the remaining dry blood from my throat.
"I'm thirteen. What do you want?"
"Simply wanting a chat," he lied.
"By saying my entire name out and asking my age? That is bullshit right there," I hissed, "your nose flared and your ears twitch when you lie. "
The pain in my lungs grabbed my heart in a sudden, clutching it tightly. For awhile, it lowered the amount of oxygen that was pumping throughout my entire body, and my head lowered. My fists clenched at the thought of that mage's smile, please let me at least rip his spine out.
"A thirteen year-old sending an energy ball to distract the officers, where'd you learn your impressive skill, Drake?" Another man that was sitting on the table with his feet crossed spoke. He looked...gay and jolly.
"Do not...call me by that...name..." The pain was burning my lungs and blood vessels on my wrists and neck.
"Where, in the Yaris of Wizard, did you learn it from, Drake?!" The first man grabbed me by the hair and forced my head to look up into his eyes.
"Why should I tell you, your highness? I thought yer supposed ta know it all by yerself." I let out a choked sound that was supposedly to be a chuckle. Gawd, my throat was so dry. If I couldn't kill anyone or grabbing someone and broke off a head or two, let me have a sip of water.
I felt a hand being smacked across my face.
"Drake...this is not a good time to play around. Did you or did you not steal books from the Wizardry?" He grabbed my throat, digging his fingertips into my neck.
"I did not steal anything...let go...of my neck..."
"Do not lie to me!" He tightened his grip around my neck until I had to force the saliva down my neck to keep it from drying.
"I...did...not...steal...anything..." Air, I need air.
"Can you testify to that court?" He shouted.
No reply.
The locked clanged, opening the gate to this jail. Unfortunately, I couldn't do anything but stay here while being pinned to the wall, looking like a dumas. The man released my neck, stood up and walked over to the group of wizards. One of them held a thick, leather covered book that looked quite familiar. I had not held any thefts in quite some time now, so I could possibly be held responsible if the other people in my group bailed out on me.
That man came back with a book in his hands and knelt down in front of me.
"Isn't this the book, Drake?" He asked.
I glanced down at the book for awhile but I closed my eyes after remembering it. It wasn't that book. It was much more advanced than that.
"How should I know?" I shrugged my shoulders slightly.
"He's telling the truth...Just let him go, Eli'Ath," the second man from before, who looked jolly, replied.
Yeah, let me go, so I could steal more stuffs and wreak more havoc.
"No, he's hiding something. I could feel it," Eli'Ath gritted his teeth.
Feel what, you insolent bastard? What did I have to hide from you? Besides the fact that I could have done something to your wife, that would be something.
"Just leave the poor boy alone." Your friend was a good man, Eli'Ath. Better than the worthless fool like you. I looked up slightly, trying to gather my strength back to sit up. I shook away from his grip and kicking him, weakly to move farther away from my sight. It was too disgusting to see him anymore or maybe I could sic Rhayne to "fix" his face. Speaking of Rhayne, where the hell was he?
The man stumbled back on his bottom and dropped the book on the ground.
"You know what? Let's wait until court," He finally, rested.
When someone speaks, you have two choices.
You can either reply or don't...
But often when you reply, you think, don't you agree?
But when you don't, they think you ignore them or it's an agreement.
It's an irony.
Part I
A Paradox of Dreams
Chapter IV
That was ten years ago. Not that much has changed. Besides the fact that I had been released from the dungeons and fed to the dogs by the wizards, I was fine. They had sentenced me a three-year jail time for that book stealing but I would never stay in a place for that long, especially when it's a place full of criminals. I was talking about myself again, weren't I? I wasn't used to hanging around criminals that time...those ten years ago.
Maybe to humans, ten years felt like a long time but it was only a blink of an eye in the world's years. Nothing much had changed, as I had said before. I escaped the prison and currently on the Most Wanted list for murders, muggings and "lynching." I never did those except for theft and murder.
I stood here, climbing on the cliff that was at the edge of the Wizard Mansion from the rear entrance. The tidal waves were kicking high and it could get pretty low until the sharp rocks were shown. The wind was beating hard against my chest and the rocks, and I knew that I would get a cold by tomorrow if I didn't hurry up.
Climbing up the slippery edges, I reached to the top in two minutes. The lighthouse spun around and spotlight was inches away from me being caught. I ducked it silently and swiftly when I rolled on the ground, staying quietly and stiff at the wall.
The dagger was tightly clutched in my left hand that I held to my face and an M9 shotgun in my other hand. I felt drops of water falling on my bandanna and arms. Damn, I shouldn't have worn my sleeveless, black shirt but if I wore long sleeves, it would be harder to move my hands. Both ways were still bad anyways.
Everything was silent but the lighthouse kept on moving and shining its spotlight to find intruders. I glanced out to the edge of the wall and quickly ran inside.
"Hey, look! An intruder!" Damn it.
I saw the person when I whirled around. For a split second, I noticed that he was wearing a yellow, wizard's robe and a wand in his right hand. They sent me a bloody, weak wizard?
Extending my gun out, I shot him on the chest. A shield was raised and it deflected the bullet. Haha, first level but I had to say that he got his timing right. I jumped back to the direction of the gate while continuing to shoot the wizard until the ammunition ran out, and threw it on the ground afterward.
For awhile, I glanced around if there was anyone else watching or patrolling around the area. My hand was beginning to feel warm, and another second had passed, a red fireball appeared on the middle of my palm. Small, glowing red energy ball, that's what it was.
"What are you going to do with that, boy? That's weak," he laughed.
"It is something that you don't know how to do." I disappeared in a sudden, appearing right behind him.
My hand grabbed his throat, itching to get a taste of some revenge after accusing me of what they didn't know I did it. I forced his mouth open to swallow a much greater amount of the fireball that emit on the middle of my palm.
I jumped back to the gate; its thick black seal locked the entrance. The shield was on. I ran to the side of the gate, opening a small box on the wall and disabling all the shield, sensors and traps. The lights were still on and I got three more seconds before the spotlights spotted me.
The wizard had turned to ashes when I sneaked to the gate. His death was rather disgusting: his pores opened and exploded, leaving different sizes of craters on his face and body. One of the side effects that attack had on people was dying of increase loss of dehydration.
Three seconds. One second—I had jumped to the gate and climbed it—I was stuck between the sharp, pointy edges on the top of the gate by the belt on the bottom part of my pants. Three seconds, I freed myself from the sharp tips and jumped back down to the other side.
I hid quickly into the bushes to wait for the spotlight to pass by. The place was silent and it was impossible for things to be this quiet in a Wizard Mansion. There must always be a guard or traps intact, unless if it was nighttime and in a holiday, but either way there should be a guard. I should know it.
I sneaked quietly into the entrance of the Mansion, remembering several things that had happened when I went in there for the first time. It was confusing but I almost got caught by the security. As a matter of fact, I did get caught. I bet it was one of those days when the wizards had laid their grubby hands off me, and tested me to try to get into their security system. Maybe. They finally, left me alone but there was no definite reason behind it.
Stopping in a sudden when I stood on top of the staircase and in front of the door, it was still silent. It was creepy. The bronze, oak door was slightly opened from the inside. Indeed it was nighttime but impossible to let their guard down and welcomed me with wide open arms. Were they toying with my head? Hell, it's worth the risk if I get a prize in the end.
I stepped up forward slowly with my left hand extending out to push the door. Nudging it to open quietly, I sauntered in—
"HOLY VIRGIN CHRISSY OF ANDREI! NARYA!"
I jolted upward in a sudden from the bed, but I could feel a needle puncturing a vein in my right wrist. I was forced back to lie down on the bed by somebody's hands clutching tightly on my shoulders. My visions blurred but I heard the mumblings and laughing beside me. Rhayne...
Just for a moment, I swear I was back in that prison and forced to eat piles of human carcasses they called "food." They force fed me, tried to know several questions and beat the living daylight out of me. It was interesting because most of the time I was a vegetable. Dead and rendered useless.
Opening my eyes, I noticed that I was lying on a bed in the hospital wing and it was nighttime. The curtains were down, covering the windows to not let the light from the room to escape. I couldn't feel my wrist anymore because of the I.V needle, but I saw Rhayne talking happily to a nurse. Sounded like flirting to me.
"Rhayne..." I muttered breathlessly.
He was still chatting with that nurse.
"Rhayne..." I spoke a little bit louder.
He turned and saw me.
"Hey!" He greeted in a gleeful tone as he rushed toward me.
I winced a little bit. "Needle...I.V."
He gazed down at the I.V needle in my right wrist that continued tugging at my skin deeper when I tried to my fingers. In a swift, sudden movement, he pulled it that felt like an elephant had took a chunk out of my hand. I didn't mind about the pain, though; I had experienced worst.
"There. You wanna go now?" He asked.
"Why am I here?" I muttered faintly and half-speaking in my mind.
"Ten months...you gotten sick from a disease that was spreading inside the dungeon," he whispered, "and then, you gotten thrown out of the Wizardry after getting a cold from climbing the cliff."
So, it was a dream after all. I sat up on the bed. My left hand held my head up while closing my eyes.
So many things are missing, I thought, too many. Realizing that I needed to go to the forest to welcome some people, I really had to go to the Wizardries as well or a tavern in the back of this alley. It was time go on a move.
I ripped off the needles that were in my other arms and hand, and stood up on my feet. I felt weird to stand up after sitting down, sleeping for a long time. My knees were wobbly.
"Where are my clothes?" I could feel the wind seeping underneath the hospital clothing.
"Are you okay?" Rhayne asked.
"I'll leave you two alone," the nurse said while smiling at Rhayne and left.
I jerked my head up, giving him an awkward expression. "Yeah, I'm fine. Why?" I gazed into his eyes after he looked back to me.
"Why? Dude, you just woke up after ten months, sat up and asked for clothes. Where in the world are you going?" He tilted his head to the side with a puzzled expression.
"Where are my clothes?" I did not intend to tell him what my plans were as I looked back down to see the warm, red carpet that my toes were squiggling on. The heater was on.
"Tell me first where you're going."
I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt but a pain surged through my lungs and was forced to let go of him; I walked off to the door.
Rhayne followed. "What the hell has gotten into you?'
No reply, instead, I walked out of the room and to the hallways where several nurses stood around to get by the shift. What is going on here? Why am I having this pain?
"Damn it, Narya. What's wrong with you?" He appeared in front of me, stopping me in the midst of my tracks.
I walked around him to the side but he stopped me. I tried again and he still wouldn't let me pass. For a moment, I felt another pain in my lungs but I took no notice of it.
"Get away..." I pushed him off to the side.
He grabbed me by the wrist and slammed me to the wall. Dragging me into the room by the collar afterward, he opened the door to the balcony. For sanity's sake, he threw me off the ledge, down from the fifth floor and to the marbled floor. That fall stung my spine.
"What the hell are you trying to do?" He stood next to me.
I flipped back up to my feet, staggering back a little bit but I regained my balance quickly.
"Anacotti's Tavern." I brushed the dirt off my pants.
"What?"
"Where the hell are my clothes?" I felt more irritated now.
He walked off into the bushes and through a mini forest. "Come."
I felt the wind brushing my back, and followed him. Strands of my light brown hair brushed my forehead, and I could tell that tonight would be busy (hopefully) since I was back.
Five minutes had passed and we reached the Tavern at the back of the alley. Several people entered, wearing their fancy fur coats and attires with make-ups and disguising what they truly looked like. Most of them were considered shape shifters, werewolves, Wiccans, warriors, and hopefully there were no knights in shining armor. Hell, they were going to kill me and yeah, that would be a first. Did anyone sense that sarcasm? "Dear gawd, man. Do you have any clothes?" I stormed over to the door of the tavern. I covered my back with the hospital clothes and Rhayne's black trench coat. It felt warm. He let me borrow his hat that he rarely wore and mostly, I was walking on barefoot. The pain subsided but I could feel the scars on my back were opening up again. The cold asphalt felt like ice comparing to the carpet in the hospital. "That's all I have on me. The hospital took all of your clothes and your pants. Let's just go in," he hissed incoherently while dragging me inside by the arm. Dear gawd, it's a disco bar. What did they do to this place? "Oh, my goddess of Althena! Narya Drake McKnightre!" Someone shouted from the bar. It sounded like a queer person and no, I didn't feel romantic tonight. Rhayne patted me and winked, "I'll be at the bar. Want something?" "Yeah...three good bottles of vodka and five whiskeys," I replied with a nervous chuckle. He gave me the Pssh-yeah-right look and left. A drunken guy approached me with a big grin of his face. He was a tall, tanned skin, 180 centimeters tall and a silver-haired man. His slanted posture made him looked like he wasn't standing at all and tipsy-toed. Around his forehead was a piece of dirtied cloth that he made into a bandanna. Long, white sleeves covered his armlets and jewelries that were gathered around his wrists and upper arms. Long, black puffy pants hid his black boots and two red belts crossed together in an X-form that dangled down his pants. "Uhh...who are you?" I whispered to him. "Aha! Duntcha remember me, Narya?" He smiled widely, showing two golden teeth at the corner of his mouth. "Ahh, Bucktooth Ritchie," I chuckled faintly. "Yoo rimambert! But plees koll mi Bucktooth Dane." He spoke with an Elven accent with his breath stank from all the whiskey he drank. He fell unto me, hugging me tightly. Well, of course. Those golden teeth could shine from Earth to Phantasy land if the sun reflected on it. Stupid man. "Dude, wutever happent to you?" A hand clamped on my right shoulder. I turned around and it was Angel's Hell Aury standing behind me. Hah, don't let his name provoked you. He was an angel but living in Hell, if you get what I meant. He was a wizard five years ago before they kicked him out for stealing the artifacts in the Wizard Treasury and invoking demons. He was a mischievous bastard, that's for sure and somewhat better than Rhayne. He was stronger, of course. "Recovering from illness, my friend," I chuckled faintly to him. "Ahh, I knew it. The clothes. You want to borrow mine or something?" He offered his black tee shirt that had a blue, snake-like dragon with a sword entwined along the middle. "Yeah, I do. Do you have any pants?" I took the shirt and slipped deeper into the crowd. He sent a thought in my head; his voice rang in my head like a gong. "Room four-oh-ten, you'll find most of your stuff there." Great...where the hell did the stairs go? I glanced around very slowly and moved in through the dancing crowd. I swear it felt like a disco hall. Screw it. Appearing at the staircase now and away from the crowded floor, I climbed up to the fourth floor. The spiral staircase was tightly enclosed with stone walls covered in spell encryptions along the surface. Along the walls that reached to the first floor, it was a story. It was a story of the history of this place and its surrounding. I finally, reached to the first floor and glanced at the steel door to my left, somewhat bolted or chained on the top and bottom. A thud was heard from inside and several kicking, punching and coughing. Should I interfere? Nah... I continued to climb up the stairs, gazing at the pictures carved on the wall and telling about the clans in different languages. Some of the languages, I noticed it but this was definitely getting boring. I appeared back on the fourth floor with no doors, gates or entrances whatsoever to enter it. The walls were not as smooth as before but rigid and bundles of bricks piled up and glued to the ceiling. I guessed they got tired of the smooth stone. Hmm... I extended my hand out when I turned to the side and it went through it like the wall was only air. Going through the wall, a whole new corridor opened up before me. Lighted only by little flickers of flames on the torch that hung by the door on each side. The floor, walls and ceilings felt like a cold, eerie dungeon hallway. The marbled bricks felt like needles jabbing my soles and the breeze brought back the memories of the orphanage and the Wizardries. Those times were not worth remembering. Room four-oh-one or room four-oh-ten. I believed it was room four-oh-ten. Walking down the corridor, goose bumps ran down my arms, and on the back of my mind, I had a feeling there would be banshees in this place. It felt like hell all over again. Crap, I brought no weapons. Four-oh-eleven, I looked to my right and moved back a room. Four-oh nine. I walked to the right and to a door right across from four-oh-eleven, but it said four-oh-twelve. Something felt weird. In a sudden, I felt a presence behind me. The air became colder in a second and the hallways were misty...foggy. I felt a hand grab me by the neck and slammed through a brick wall, but by the next second I was lying down on the ground in a room. The room was dark and the wooden floorboards creaked underneath my feet. The brick walls felt warm when the moonlight shone through the window glass, reflecting the rays like a light that had pierced through a champagne glass on the wall. There was a stack of backpacks in the corner, noticing that mine was on top of all of it. A note was placed there above my backpack. Hmm... It's too dark. Quickly, I got up on my feet and brushed off the dusts from my pants. I walked toward it but that cold, eerie feeling that I had since I was in the hallway, had returned. Ignoring it for a couple more minutes, the air became colder as I walked on to take the note. For a second there, I swear I felt something breathing down my neck and cool drops of liquid fell on my spine. Goosebumps appeared on my arms. I turned around on the spot but suddenly, stumbled back from one of the bag handle. Looking back up, I saw a white, silvery person floating on the air.